Pastor Francis GOMEZ
Pastor Francis Gomez was born in 1976 in the local village called Mademba Kunda, commonly known as Bakalar in the North of the Gambia (West Africa), from a very humble background. In 1982, he joined the primary school in the village and, later on, sat for the high school common entrance examination. He was a very talented football player. In the village, everyone liked the way he played football but his father was not in support of it because of his sad experience with Francis Gomez’s late brother. The father has two sons and many daughters.
The father’s experience with the late brother is that the late brother was very gifted in school and because of that, most families were not happy that the late brother was always the best. It is believed that witchcraft was used on the deceased; thus, many years after having successfully passed his six A level education modules, he could not work till the day the Lord recalled him. That fear was deeply embedded in the father’s consciousness which fear regulated his relation with the young Gomez.
In 1989, Gomez came into contact with a German missionary who took him as a son and, in return, the young Gomez considered her as a spiritual mother. The missionary disciplined him and paid his school fees; this experience was very deep and touched the young Gomez. Take into account the fact that Gomez’s parents were not able to pay the young child’s high school fees. Young Gomez completed high school in 1993 and started working as a teacher for three years and, later on, he joined his spiritual mother in her clinic in the village. He worked there for seven year. After that, he was given a scholarship to study Theology in Ghana. While in Ghana in the year 2000, he concurrently completed two first degrees: a BA Theology and a BA Education Administration. Gomez finished his university education in 2008.
Compelled by the humanitarian fortitude in the Gambia, Gomez was empowered by the love and care for humanity which fact led him to help found a school in his country; the aim of the school is to serve the communities achieve universal child education. Additionally, many youths in his village cannot finish school because their parents don’t have the money and financial means to pay the school fees.
Thus, in 2008, Gomez returned from Ghana to the Gambia in order to start the implementation of his vision, dream, leadership, and educational endeavors. He started the school in a rented place. In 2011, he got his own place in Brusubi Phase 2, in the far suburb of Banjul the capital-city. The new campus was opened in October 2012.
The objective of the school is to prepare, equip with skills, and offer education to underprivileged children and teenage mothers; these skills, opportunities, and educational abilities are required for personal development and self-reliance, which, in turn, are the harbingers of hope and a brighter future.
